(Winston-Salem)
UNCSA alumnus David Gordon Green can add
another honor to his growing list of
accolades. Green, a 1998 graduate
of UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking, has won
Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear Award
for Best Director for his 2012 film
PRINCE AVALANCHE.

Filmed secretly in Austin, Texas, PRINCE
AVALANCHE stars Paul Rudd and Emile
Hirsch in a remake of the Icelandic film
EITHER WAY.
Green also adapted the script, and
produced the film along with Craig Zobel,
a 1999 UNCSA Film graduate, and Lisa
Muscat, a former faculty member.
It will be screened locally at the
RiverRun International Film Festival in
April.

The Berlin Film Festival, also known as
Berlinale, is one of the most important
film events in Europe, and is the
biggest public audience film festival in
the world. It showcases more than 400
movies from all over the world, with
more than 300,000 tickets sold annually
to the public.

“The Silver Bear is an important
achievement,” said Susan Ruskin, interim
dean of the School of Filmmaking. “David
has an impressive portfolio of films
that critics appreciate and that people
want to see. He manages to move
comfortably back and forth between
directing smaller independent films and
the bigger-budgeted Hollywood comedies.”

Green began garnering awards as a
student at UNCSA, when his short film
PHYSICAL PINBALL won a CINE Eagle Award.
In 2000 his first feature film, GEORGE
WASHINGTON, won
The Discovery Award at the Toronto Film
Festival, was named Best First Film by
New York Film Critic’s Circle, and won
Best Dramatic Film, Best Director, and
Best Actor for entire cast at the Third
Newport International Film Festival.
Green wrote, edited and directed the
film, which was named one of the top
films of 2000 by Roger Ebert,
The
New York Times, Time Magazine and many
others.

In 2003, he directed ALL THE REAL GIRLS,
which won two jury prizes at the
Sundance Film Festival. UNDERTOW, which
Green directed in 2004, was an official
selection of the New York and Toronto
film festivals. In 2008, he directed
Golden Globe-nominated PINEAPPLE
EXPRESS.

Additional film directing credits
include SNOW ANGELS in 2007, YOUR
HIGHNESS in 2011 and THE SITTER in 2011.
For television, he has produced and
directed “Eastbound and Down” for HBO in
2009-10, and BLACK JACK, a 2011 movie
for Comedy Central.

As America’s first state-supported arts
school, the University of North Carolina
School of the Arts is a unique
stand-alone public university of arts
conservatories. With a high school
component, UNCSA is a degree-granting
institution that trains young people of
talent in music, dance, drama,
filmmaking, and design and production.
Established by the N.C. General Assembly
in 1963, the School of the Arts opened
in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and
Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of
the University of North Carolina system
in 1972. For more information, visit
www.uncsa.edu.